testimony that proved Walter was innocence, however, they all ignored the facts in order to sentence a poor black man. It could be argued that Walter’s own defense attorney could be accused of ignoring the facts. Not only did his attorney not properly or efficiently defend him in this case but he also did not help him in any way to appeal his conviction. Walter contacted Bryan Stevenson for help. At this point, Walter was just hoping Bryan could get him off of death row. Both Walter and Bryan new he was innocent but proving this and winning in a corrupt justice system seemed imposable. Bryan worked on this case for over six years and eventually was not only able to over throw the execution he was also able to prove Walter innocents, Walter…show more content… This time frame made it impossible to help the man, however, he did everything in his power to try. This situation also contributed to Stevenson looking into past experiences, PTSD, domestic violence and mental illness and how it related to murder and especially to sentencing. He started to research the amount of people that suffered from these and the correlation to those on death row. He did not argue that these people committed murder but he insisted that these inmates be shown some sort of mercy because of the extraordinary circumstances of each case. It was shown without doubt that an inmate on death row suffered from PTSD from the war and Stevenson asked for Mercy because of these circumstances, he was denied a stay of execution and was executed shortly after. In another case a poor women gave birth to still born baby and her and her husband buried they baby in the backyard. When the Medical examiner gave their testimony they told the court that the baby was alive at birth. It was later proven that the examiner never examined the lungs of the baby. This mother was eventually released from prison thanks to Stevenson’s hard
